8 Nights in Japan

Hi,

We are a family of 4 adults and will be in Japan for 8 nights in September end.

We are planning to stay 4 nights in Osaka & 4 in Tokyo.

Itinerary:

Landing at KIX in the morning.
1st day : Osaka
2nd day: Osaka - Hiroshima - Osaka
3rd day : Osaka - Kyoto - Osaka
4th day : Osaka - Kyoto - Osaka

5th day : Tokyo
6th DAY : Tokyo - Mt. Fuji - Tokyo
7th - 9th day : Tokyo
Departing from Narita on 9th day morning.

Please help me in deciding:

1. Whether it is fine to make Osaka as base for visiting Kyoto & Hiroshima?

2. As our schedule is more than 7 days we may have to go for a 14 days JR Pass which seems a bit expensive. Is there a way for cost effective travel with 7 days JR pass?

Thanks in advance for your help.

1. Osaka is a good base for both places. From there it takes about 1.5 hours to get to Hiroshima, and about 15 minutes to reach Kyoto.

2. You won't need the JR pass everywhere; for example, for travel within Tokyo you can only use it on the Yamanote Loop Line, which, while useful, does not cover the whole city. Use hyperdia.com/en to calculate all your train fares to work out if the pass will pay off. Make sure that under "Search Details" you untick "Nozomi/etc." and "Private Railway" to get only trains you can use with a JR pass.

1. Yes
2. If you go to Hiroshima as planned, then you can use the 7-day JR Pass to cover Osaka - Hiroshima - Osaka/Kyoto - Tokyo, and if you are going to Hakone when you say Mt. Fuji, you can use it from Tokyo - Odawara too. That would pay off. But buying a 14-day version does not. Nationwide JR pass makes sense on the days you do a lot of long-distance travel on JR Shinkansen trains (inter-city).

Just activate your 7 days pass on your Hiroshima day and use it until it runs out, pay the rest as regular tickets. A 14 days pass does not make sense.

Thank you all for your helpful response.

1.
Hotels in Osaka are cheaper too!

Kyoto doesn't have much night activities unless you are willing to pay for Geisha dancing + music + up scale dinner
Osaka being a city has anything from girls shouting for you to till-morning-bars

Hiroshima does have night activities... but Osaka is a far larger city with a greater concentration of night activities.

You should stay at SHIN-OSAKA, not OSAKA. The Shinkansen terminal is at SHIN-OSAKA and there are lots of hotels there.
Try Agoda or Rakuten for hotel reservations.

I think for the effcient use of 7 days JR pass the best way is to activate on the 2nd day and use it till 8th day. On the 1st and 9th day we will utilise other means of transport.

Will try to book a hotel in Shin-Osaka...is it A convenient location for local sight seeing in Osaka?

Similarly...for Tokyo also would like to have good suggestions for hotel locations for ease in using JR Pass as well as local sight seeing.

Thanks in advance.